Panicky Portlanders Strip Grocery Shelves Bare of Kale as Snowstorm Descends

Other groceries are gone too, as a nervous city hunkers down.

Hollywood Fred Meyer (Jesse Friedman)
By Aaron Mesh

Portland is getting snow tonight. The city is bracing for even more snow Monday—perhaps the most it's seen in two decades.

Citizens responded in the traditional manner: They made a run on kale.

This photo, taken early Friday afternoon by Jesse Friedman at the Hollywood Fred Meyer in Northeast Portland, drew some online mirth. But it was just part of a city-wide grocery rush. By mid-evening, Portlanders had stripped grocery shelves across the city of most fresh vegetables.

The same applied to other necessities. Good luck finding bread in Happy Valley.

Or bananas in Cully.

As of 8:15, it hasn't even started snowing in central Portland yet. But we Portlanders—a hardy, nervous people—are prepared. We will have toilet paper.

Some of us, anyway.

(Matthew Singer)

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